The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year. Most Americans are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

QOM, Iran -- The spiritual mentor of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric fighting U.S. forces in Iraq distanced himself Sunday from the militia attacks of his protege, Muqtada al-Sadr, saying through his top aide it isn't time - at least not yet - for military confrontation with the U.S.

But thousands of followers of Grand Ayatollah Kazem al-Hosseini al-Haeri are returning to Iraq with a message from him encouraging Iraqis to reject U.S. occupation and warning the U.S.-led occupying forces to avoid disrespecting Muslim holy sites in Iraq.

"His Eminence has not issued any fatwa (religious edit) to engage in military confrontation with the U.S.-led occupying forces," al-Haeri's younger brother and closest adviser, Mohammad Hossein al-Hossein al-Haeri, told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday.

"The time is not ripe for that," he said. The younger al-Haeri, who also is a cleric, was speaking on behalf of the grand ayatollah, who doesn't generally meet journalists.

The call came as militiamen loyal to al-Sadr attacked a U.S. convoy Sunday morning between the southern cities of Basra and Amarah. There was no immediate word on casualties.

The night before, militiamen clashed with U.K. troops for several hours in Amarah, first attacking a patrol then firing rocket-propelled grenades at the U.K. base. Five Iraqis were killed and six U.K. soldiers were wounded in the gunbattles. On Sunday morning, al-Sadr forces fired mortars at the U.S. base in Najaf, causing no damage or casualties.

"As far as we are not forced into a confrontation, the ayatollah doesn't agree to fighting," al-Haeri said.

However, al-Haeri said trampling the dignity of Iraqis and attacking holy shrines in Iraq may give enough justification for the ayatollah to call for Jihad against Americans.

The elder al-Haeri was the closest adviser to Sadr's father, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqer al-Sadr and effectively succeeded him. He is known as the spiritual father of Muqtada al-Sadr, but it was not clear how the difference of opinions on military confrontation with the U.S. affected their relationship.

Shiite Muslim leaders in Iran don't encourage military confrontation with the U.S., instead calling for a political solution to get the U.S.-led coalition forces out of Iraq.

Hundreds of Iraqi pilgrims visiting al-Haeri's offices in Qom, 130 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, are returning to Iraq with a strong message written in Arabic from their leader.

"From the very beginning, I was convinced that U.S.-led forces didn't come to Iraq to bring freedom but occupation. Now, it has been proved," said the written statement from the grand ayatollah. Officials at al-Haeri's office are distributing the statement to the visiting Iraqi pilgrims.

"Americans have killed many Iraqis in the name of freedom and democracy. Where is that democracy? We warn the U.S. not to trample the dignity of the Iraqi people and avoid disrespecting Islamic sanctities," the statement said.

Anncr: Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:

The annual session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission has ended in Geneva with no rebuke of Iran. The commission's silence comes after a year of particularly grievous violations by Tehran's Islamic fundamentalist regime: the beating to death of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi [zah-RAH kah-zeh-MEE] while in government custody; the disqualification of thousands of electoral candidates; the closing of independent newspapers and journals; the imprisonment of journalists, students, and other reformers; sentencing dissidents to be flogged or killed.

Basic human rights are denied by law in Iran. As one of the commission's own working groups reported, Iran's legal system stipulates that "evidence by a man is equivalent to that of two women"; punishments for sins "against divine law" are "the death penalty, crucifixion, stoning, amputation of the right hand and, for repeat offenses, the left foot, flogging"; "criminal proceedings in their entirety are...concentrated in the hands of a single person since the judge prosecutes, investigates, and decides the case."

Unlike the U-N Human Rights Commission, Ambeyi Ligabo, the U-N's Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, has not been silent about human rights abuses in Iran. In January, after a visit to Iran, Mr. Ligabo issued a report that described the "climate of fear induced by the systematic repression of people expressing critical views against the authorized political and religious doctrine." He said that the severity of the sentences imposed by the government has led to "self-censorship among many journalists, intellectuals, politicians, students, and the population at large." In light of these findings, Mr. Ligabo recommended visits to Iran by the U-N's Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

President George W. Bush says that despite such abuses, the desire for liberty is alive in Iran:

(ACT: 10 DALET: POLICY/ACTUALITIES) "In the face of harsh repression, Iranians are courageously speaking out for democracy and the rule of law and human rights." (END ACT)

The U.S., says Mr. Bush, strongly supports the aspirations of Iranians for freedom.

Anncr: That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government. For a transcript of this and other V-O-A editorials, or to receive editorials by email, visit the V-O-A Editorials internet home page at www-dot-voanews-dot-com-slash-editorials.

TEHRAN -- Iranian hardline judiciary authorities in a rare move have allowed seven prominent dissidents jailed for speaking out against the regime and students jailed during unrest in 1999 to go on leave, the Iranian daily Shargh reported on Sunday.

According to the paper, Akbar Ganji, who was jailed in 2000 after he alleged top regime officials were behind a spate of grisly serial murders of dissidents, was given seven days of leave starting Saturday.

Ahmad Batebi, Nasser Zarafshan and Akbar Mohammadi were each given five days out of prison.

However Mohammad Salamati, a leader of one of the most outspoken pro-reform parties, the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution, appeared Sunday before a Tehran court.

He was summoned in particular for taking the defence of Hashem Aghajari, an academic still awaiting a review of a death sentence for a controversial speech querying the supremacy of the clergy.

Batebi had been initially condemned to death for his participation in the demonstration in 1999 where he was featured on a famous photograph holding aloft a blood-soaked T-shirt. His sentence was revised to 13 years imprisonment.

In August 2002, Zarafshan, a prominent lawyer was sentenced to five years in prison and 50 lashes for "distributing secret information".

He was the legal representative of the Forouhar and Pouyandeh families, three of whose members were killed in a series of murders officially attributed to "rogue" intelligence ministry agents in November 1998.

Akbar Mohammadi was originally sentenced to death for "mohareb" (warring against God) for his role in the 1999 student demonstrations, and is currently serving a reduced term of 15 years.

Reza Alijani, Hoda Saber and Taghi Rahmani, who are members of Iran's liberal opposition, were also given a week's leave.

They were imprisoned on charges of seeking to topple the Islamic republic's regime.

The measures were announced a few days after judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, published a series of directives to strengthen the rights of the detainees, including banning torture during interrogation.

Shahroudi stressed the principle of presumption of innocence and respect for legality, the right of detainees to have a lawyers, and condemned abuse of power and improper imprisonment.

The moves also come amid the resurfacing of debate on whether there are political prisoners in Iran or not.

Iranian TV Series Based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Jewish Control of Hollywood

April 30, 2004 No.705

Throughout the first two weeks of April, the Iranian TV station Al-Alam aired a documentary titled Al-Sameri wa Al-Saher. The series purports to explain how the Jews control Hollywood by the directives set out in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The following are excerpts from the documentary: [1]

The False Myth About the Murder of Six Million Jews

"The most important film produced under Zionist guidance in the 60s was called Operation Eichmann. This film completed the false myth about the murder of six million Jews in the hands of the Nazis.

"But the film producers did not mention his provocative trial on December 17 1961. This is because of what Eichmann said about the German Jews' expulsion and killing: 'I was only carrying out the orders of the Zionists. They asked me to gather the Jews in a specific place in the world, using expulsion or murder. First, their target was Poland, then Madagascar, but in the end they chose the Middle East. If I am guilty of the so-called

killing of 6 million Jews then the Zionist leaders are much guiltier than I am. This is because they wanted to silence the world under the pretext that if they had stayed in Germany they would have been killed. Because they don't have a country they are forced to occupy other people's land. And that is what they did.' The Zionist authorities finished the trial quickly to avoid further commotion. They hanged Adolf Eichmann in 1962 so the secrets of the collaboration between the Zionists and the Nazis would remain hidden.

"The plot of the film [Funny Girl] served to introduce the ugly Jewish actress Barbra Streisand, who played the role of Fanny Brice. Films portraying a positive image of the Jews appeared in early 1980's. Among those were the third version of The Jazz Singer, The Shout from 1981 directed by Valentino, and the film Tootsie, in 1982, directed by Sydney Pollack.

"The movie Yentl which Barbra Streisand starred in and produced in 1983, dealt with the Zionists' wish to benefit from feminism, the new women's movement, as time goes by.

"Awarding Driving Miss Daisy the Oscar for best picture in 1989 strengthened this conservative Jewish trend. The film Driving Miss Daisy tells of an old Jewish woman and her black driver. In the beginning, the old woman hates the driver, but in the end she establishes a friendly relationship with him.

The Jews Control of the Music, Movie, and Arts Industries

"Dr. Muhammad Madad Bour, university professor: 'Modern music was invented by the Christians, but the Jews took control over its industry. Cinema was invented by the Christians  Edison or the French Lormier brothers  but the Jews took control over its industry. The same goes for painting. Modern painting was invented by the Christians. The Christian message is very clear but the Jews control all the exhibitions. The art trade market is in their hands.

"'Note that generally they have never been creative. Note the factories, there are no Jews there. But on the other hand, we see that most management and service companies in the West and most banks are held by Jews.

"'They wrote the human rights laws, so they can do what ever they wish. They worked to destroy the holy places, reject religion, religious schools of thought, and morale. They suggested in their protocols that people's beliefs should be destroyed, so the people would have no faith and then they would become their captives and putty in their hands.

Globalization Means 'Judaize the World'

"'One of their short-term plans is establishing this Zionist state. In fact, the Israeli plan is a short-term one within the greater plan - globalization. First, they say globalization, and then they will begin to Judaize the world. Today, there is competition in trade and economic globalization without taking justice into account. Those who struggle against this plan are the nonJews. The Jews defend the globalization, from which the poor suffer and so they resist it.'

"Nader Taleb Zada, producer: 'In the 20th century, we witnessed the establishment of a superpower, two, or more. Cinema had to make progress in a way that benefited them. So, it was only natural that cinema should fall in the hands of the World Zionists, imperialism, and the very wealthy, who are mostly Jews, and of course Zionists.

Jews Use Films to Spread Plagues

"'Today, using cinema, one can infiltrate all homes. Using cinema, one can enslave many of the skills and powers.'

"Majed Shah Huseini, critic: 'Today, many new films dictate the same concepts. One of these methods is presenting religious concepts through cinema, according to the biblical approach, like Satan, Judgment Day, Heaven and Hell. Toady, these concepts appear in many films; I don't want to mention which because I don't want to promote Hollywood films. But it is obvious that many viewers are familiar with many of these films. A different issue is that their moral perspective is superficial. They spread tolerance and disregard of morality amongst other nations but not among themselves. They know that by doing so they are spreading a plague. They, of course, protect themselves from it, but they have no objection to spreading this plague among others, be the consequences as they may.

"'Their other position relates to science fiction. They always create imaginary threats to Earth on which we safely live. They speak of alien creatures, occurrences in outer space, and metaphysical catastrophe that will happen and affect our lives. Hollywood cinema, and to a great extent the Jewish companies in Hollywood, are trying very hard, using extraterrestrial threats, to portray a certain image of stability in the world.

"'In [Independence Day] the first catastrophe occurs in Iraq. Meaning, this force struck the first blow on an Arab Muslim country. Now, America, as a representative of the planet, is required to do something against this threat from outer space. This is how they dictate to the viewer that America is the savior and that it is the only one who needs to save everyone and the others are unimportant.'

"The Matrix was a meeting point between Hollywood and Jewish Zionist fundamentalism. In using The Matrix, the Wachowski brothers tried to embellish the ugly image of the State of Israel and to introduce the Zionist society as a utopian future society. The plot for The Matrix is derived from the teachings of Gush Emunim, or the fundamental Zionists. The agents' purpose in The Matrix is to arrest the resistance leader, Morpheus, in order to eliminate the Zionist resistance movement by obtaining the entrance code to its network. In the film The Matrix, Zion is regarded as the only sanctuary and as the center of human resistance in the third millennium. The film indirectly suggests to the viewers that all other beliefs and ideologies are null and void. This is the Zionist racism, which wants everything for itself and does not conceive of non-Jews as deserving to live and prosper. This is only a miniscule part of the proof of the political, religious, and biblical aspects of The Matrix.

"'This is the fundamental Zionist Jews' way; they try to distribute the idea of biblical justice and to rebuild the Holy Temple by using the traditional extremists. But still there remain people around the world who do not let them lurk in the dark. Likewise, history shows that the peoples don't let oppressors go unpunished.

"'The Korean War proved that any individual who is not of the American white race is considered by the American rulers and Hollywood producers as of backward culture and as a source of fear for Western society. Hollywood, ever since wealthy Jews had created it, has worked to cultivate this perception using its various films.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Guarantee Zionist Victory

"'This is because it saw this perception as in total compliance with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and as a guarantee of the Zionist victory. With time, this perception created new sources of fear: beginning with Arabian Bedouin tribes and ending with alien creatures coming from outer space and always landing in American cities.

"'Each time, their death was described in a more fanciful and gleeful way in accordance with the first and ninth protocols:

"'The best results that can be achieved through our control of non-Jews are obtainable through violence and assassination, not through academic debates, because by nature, truth is with the mighty. We will resist any plot against us and kill mercilessly anyone who turns to armed struggle in an attempt destabilize our country."

"The Arabs are portrayed in [Lawrence of Arabia] as inept, stupid, and illogical facing technology and new inventions. This ploy fits the content of the fourteenth protocol regarding the non-Jewish nations: "Non-Jewish nations must not forget that they are worthless and cannot understand the depth of issues. Only we, the Jews understand political issues. God prepared us for this through the torments our generations have been through."

"In the film Lawrence of Arabia, an emphasis is put on one of the Zionist goals written in the first of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and that is the role the Zionists and their agents play in sparking riots or revolutions under the slogan of liberty around the world.

"In this film, Lawrence was sent to the Arabs for that purpose: 'Political liberty is only an ideology that has no external existence. But every one of us must know how to derive benefits from this trap so they can draw the masses and thus wipe out the opposing ruling party.'

"When the Zionists convened their special congress in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland, a group of Czarist Russian policemen set fire to the congress hall. The Jews taking part in the congress fled out of fear of the fire. The policemen collected the documents, lists and protocols of the meeting that were lying on the desks and transferred them to Moscow. They found among these writings what was later called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Protocols were divided into 24 parts and included the satanic Jewish ideas of taking over the world using a Jewish government, after destroying all of Orthodox Russia, Catholic Europe, the pope's reign, and Islam."

Tehran, 2 May: President Mohammad Khatami said on Sunday [2 May] that freedom is the strongest pillar of progress and development of character of human being. He said in his address to the inaugural ceremony of International Book Fair that in terms of religious obligations also, freedom and free choice are prerequisites.

"Freedom brings responsibility and the philosophy of freedom in democratic societies does not mean lawlessness," President Khatami said. Book is the oldest and the best means of communication and holding the International Book Fair is a major step towards developing the culture of reading, he said.

Referring to the spread of electronic media, he said access to books have become easy, but filtering them has become difficult at the same time.

"In the era of electronic media, we need a new type of 'filtering' to ensure safety of the society which we need for progress.

"We should encourage public conscience to distinguish between 'right from wrong' and 'useful from harmful'," President Khatami pointed out.

He expressed concern about the fact that developed states enjoying upper hand in electronic media have launched wide-scale offensive against national cultures and termed it as 'electronic tyranny'.

President Khatami complained that his theory of Dialogue of Civilizations was sidelined by the philosophy of warmongering and creating insecurity.

"If Iran's proposal to the international community had been paid due attention, the US invasion of Iraq would not have happened," he said.

"Politicians, intellectuals and thinkers welcomed the proposal to hold dialogue of civilizations, tens of centres were set up in the big countries for the purpose and tens of seminars and conferences were held with the agenda of dialogue," he added.

He said that he would follow up Dialogue of Civilizations at an appropriate time in the future. "Establishment of democracy in the international community is inter-linked to Dialogue of Civilizations and that democracy will be established in the global level once all the countries enjoy democracy in line with national and cultural values," he said.

"The hegemonic powers cannot help establish democracy in the international community. They are more dangerous than apartheid regime for the world. The philosophy of hegemony will drive the world to fascism," President Khatami said.

In the international community, none of the governments has the right to impose its demand on other nations from position of superiority, President Khatami said.

"The world community is suffering from plunder of the very basic rights of human beings by the so-called advocates of human rights," he said.

"I hope the Dialogue of Civilization will help establish a civil society in the world community and restore ethical standards in international relations with the support of intellectuals and thinkers, not by the powerful politicians," President Khatami concluded.

"If the oppressed people of Lebanon do not take hostages, then what else can they do? - Irans former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, Nov. 7, 1986

In the 1980s, Tehran perfected the art of using hostage-taking as a profitable instrument of advancing its foreign policy. Iran, indeed, has used terrorism as part of its overall policy of exporting fundamentalism and expanding its sphere of influence in the Middle East and beyond.

It is no different in Iraq today.

Irans clerical regime exploits religion to legitimize acts of terror by calling them divine duties. The mullahs promise the perpetrators of such actions "a place in heaven." This religious factor generates intense hatred and catastrophic results. Some of the most devastating blows have been delivered through suicide missions.

Although not new to the world, terrorism has acquired qualitatively different dimensions since Irans Islamic fundamentalist government came to power in 1979. The doctrine of Bast (expansion) of the Islamic Revelation has been the cornerstone of their foreign policy since the early days of the clerical rule.

In a book entitled Principles of the Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the tasks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been defined as:

Noting in particular the far-reaching and enormous objectives of the Islamic Republic with regards to the export of revolution and the liberation movements, social groups and even ordinary citizens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must adopt guidelines needed to coordinate the activities of different organs involved in the field of foreign policy.

All subversive activities in any given country are carried out with the involvement or knowledge of the local Iranian embassy there. In Islamic countries, Tehrans diplomatic offices establish ties with indigenous fundamentalist Islamic forces. They provide these forces with pro-Iranian propaganda and gradually sustain them with financial support.

The images of the victims and the targets are for the most part associated with Tehran. The grim faces of hostages pleading with their governments, hijacked planes sitting on the tarmacs, collapsed buildings and charred bodies, even of children, are too frequent to ignore.

The occupation of the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979 signaled an ominous beginning and gave the world a glimpse of what was yet to come. The 1980s witnessed the tragic saga of the U.S. and other Western hostages held captive by Tehran's proxies in Lebanon, where the mullahs bargained with the West, not only to reap economic windfalls, but to harvest political concessions.

In late 1980s and early 1990s, the clerics realized that they could gain more from releasing rather than keeping the hostages. True to their colors, Iran appeasers rushed to cheer Tehrans reformation and penchant to use its good offices. The cheerleading provided cover for normalizing relations with an otherwise loathsome regime.

Tehran has also used terrorism as an effective means to communicate with the Western world. When the departure of an Iranian cargo ship from an Italian port was delayed for a few days because an Iranian sailor had requested political asylum in 1986, Tehran retaliated by preventing Italian nationals, including diplomats, from leaving Iran.

And when Iran-Swiss relations soured over the arrest of a top Iranian terrorist in Switzerland in 1992, a Swiss businessman disappeared in Tehran, only to turn up as hostage a few days later.

Even today, Tehran uses the same technique. Last September, when the Scotland Yard detained Irans ex-ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour for his role in the 1994 Jewish Center car bombing, Iranian agents carried out drive-by shootings against the British Embassy in Tehran. A few weeks later, a court in London released Soleimanpour on the basis of legal technicalities.

Today in Iraq, from all indications, Tehrans proxies are behind much of the abduction of foreign nationals. The objective is to coerce other members of the Coalition to cut and run, leaving the United States isolated in the country. The ever-unscrupulous mullahs then offer to act as an arbiter in the chaos and anarchy that they themselves have fomented in the first place.

The Lebanon experience of the 1980s should serve as a stark reminder that any leniency towards Tehran and its creeping meddling in Iraq would only serve to consolidate Iranian influence in that country. We should meet Tehrans challenge head-on. Relying on the good offices or good will of Americans most dangerous nemesis would be an exercise in futility.

USADI Dispatch is a weekly commentary of the US Alliance for Democratic Iran

WASHINGTON - U.S. spy agencies claim Iraqi leader Ahmed Chalabi, who has close Pentagon ties, may have given Iran's ayatollahs some top-secret tips on U.S. actions in Iraq and that could "get people killed," it was reported yesterday. The Newsweek report claims electronic intercepts show Chalabi gave Iran "sensitive" tips about U.S. political plans in Iraq - but gives no details - and says there are "indications" that Chalabi leaked details of U.S. security operations.

A Chalabi aide dismissed the report as "absolutely false" - and some Pentagon officials countered that Chalabi had provided information that saved American lives. The anti-Chalabi leak to Newsweek appears to be part of the behind-the-scenes struggle for power and influence in Iraq when sovereignty is transferred on June 30, leading to elections next year.

Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, has been favored by some Pentagon officials to become leader of a free Iraq - but the CIA and State Department have a long and intense dislike for him.

"Rushing to judgment and cutting off this relationship could have unintended consequences," one Pentagon official said.

But the CIA and State Department are pushing the claim that Chalabi is playing a double game with Iran's fundamentalist ayatollahs, Newsweek said.

"Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress." is oneof the last people the Bush administration should trust. Chalabi has been involved in to many past shady deals. For him, Iraq is just another (shady) deal.

13
posted on 05/03/2004 7:52:22 AM PDT
by Smartass
( BUSH & CHENEY IN 2002 - The Best Get Better)

We Will Become Liberated Without Violence Today, while writing this declaration, we are ashamed of not being in prison and we are disgraced not being under your torture. We are suffering to see that our friends, who together were practicing day and night lessons of passive resistance and nonviolence, are in solitary confinement in your prisons under the most savage physical and mental torture.

Until yesterday Mehdi Habibi, Abdollah Momeni, Amin Zadeh, Ameri Nasab, Hojjat Sharifi, Arash Hashemi, Bagher Oskooi, and others were one with us in peaceful protest. Now their days and nights are spent in the dark prison cells that have borrowed darkness from your conscience. We will continue the path that we started together with them and in honor of them. We will never forget the promise we made to each other, that one has only to toleratenot instigatethe violence in order to achieve peace. We tell you, as they do, that your sickle is rusted!

As you uselessly try to muffle my song, I will sing stronger than ever.

We tell you that we will counter your readiness and eagerness to inflict pain with our strength for tolerance of pain. We will balance your power of imprisonment, torture, harm and hurt with our moral strength and we will without an ounce of hatred. However, we will never let you proudly attack and lash us, and smile victoriously at the sight of our bloodied bodies.

We are talking to YOU! Imprison us, torture us, and extract confessions from us. Expel, imprison, exile and even execute our professors. Destroy and set fire to our houses. Make us bloody and drag us in our own blood to your torture chambers. Beat us and leave our bloodied bodies alone. We will endure and will never hate you! We will never slap your face. When you stab our side, we will never swear at you. When you throw us out from the third floor, we will answer your violence with tolerance. We will continue to tolerate pain and torture until your acts of cruelty, past and present, returns to haunt you! This is our campaign. We see freedom in nonviolence and you see power in violence. We swear that we will stand with no violence against your power, even in the face of your torture, stabs and lashes.

In pursuing freedom, we will never take arms, we will never assassinate, we will never torture. We know well that violence is bad, assassination is ugly, and torture is painful. We have learned patience and tolerance in our doctrine. There will be an ease after every hardship. We will campaign with our honesty, our clean conscience and our minds. Our campaign is the tolerance of your torture. We will wait and tolerate the pain so long that we make your conscience, darkened for the last few decades, wake up from ignorance.

We will tolerate pain but not complain, suffer torture but not shout. We will continue until the world testifies to our innocence, and until your black conscience testifies to your cruelty. Then your nights will be filled with nightmares of your own torture cells, nightmares of the lashes you inflicted on our tired bodies, and you will not rest any more. Be certain that tomorrow, even if you are still in power, you will not be able to spend your nights without nightmares reflecting on the muffled cries and open wounds of the youth of this land.

We will tolerate pain until your conscience arises from its poisoned slumber and until you are obliged to yield to the people to relieve your guilty consciences. Tomorrow, at the time of the peoples victory and when you have fallen from the pedestal of power to the dark well of disgrace, we will be there to welcome you and show you again that we abhor violence, we do not even hate you, our torturers, and we will forgive you without any reward. Although we will never hate you, we can not forget you because the wounds you have inflicted will never heal.

We will continue to campaign without violence in order to prove to the world that violence should not be responded by violence, and cruelty is not the proper answer against cruelty. We would like to show that violence, in any shape or form and under any cover up - torturer or tortured, oppressor or oppressed - is condemned. We will become liberated without violence!

Islamic Society of Students of Amir Kabir Technical University (Tehran/Iran) July 2003

The Islamic regime backed off from one of its repressive diectives following the violent clashes which rocked the Shahrara district of the Capital on Saturday. The clashes happened when the regime's anti-riot units and plainclothes agents intervened in order to smash a peaceful popular rally held in front of the "Passeport Office".

Clubs and tear gas were used against tens of demonstrators who denounced the persistent repression and a official directive which stipulated that those intending to leave the country must have their new ID card with Electronic code in order to obtain their passeports.

Slogans against the regime and its leaders were shouted by the protesters despite the violent attack leading to the injuries and arrests of several protesters. But the action forced, in an unprededented manner, the regime to postpone "officially" the execution of the new directive in order to win time.

Its mouthpieces declared, yesterday, that having the new cards is not more an absolute criteria in order to be able to obtain the necessary paperworks for leaving the country.

Doted with German technology, the regime is proceeding to the detailled identification and classification of millions of Iranians for a better control.

The paper claims that the five entered the Yarmook camp in Damascus to meet Meshal and Mousa Abu Marzook, a high-ranking member of the Hamas political office.

The five were dispatched by the Mossad, the paper claims, to assassinate the two top Hamas officials, but were nabbed by Meshal's bodyguards.

The five men are currently being held by the Syrian security forces, according to the report, but have still not been identified. They said during questioning that entered Syria through Jordan and were sent by the Mossad to kill the Hamas officials.

An attempt to assassinate Meshal was foiled in 1997 when two Mossad agents were caught in Jordan with forged Canadian passports. They were released a few days later and sent back to Israel.

TEHRAN -- Nobel Peace Prize winner and Iranian rights campaigner Shirin Ebadi is to visit the United States in the coming days and may meet members of George W. Bush's administration, a colleague told AFP Monday.

"She is replying to a number of invitations from universities and non-governmental organizations, and if the situation requires she may talk to the US administration for the purpose of human rights," Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said.

This would be the human rights lawyer's first visit to the United States since she won the Nobel Peace Prize prize in December. She is a supporter of dialogue between Tehran and Washington, which have no diplomatic ties, to improve relations.

Dadkhah said that Ebadi is currently in Vancouver, Canada, and would go on to the United States from there, adding: "She will speak about the human rights issues in three different states and will talk to United Nations officials who deal with human rights issues."

He gave no additional details.

On April 14, Ebadi criticised the failure of the top UN human rights body to examine events in Iran, saying it was an insult to fellow democrats in her home country.

She was in Geneva attending the commission's annual meeting and to support a report by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on human rights defenders.

TEHRAN -- Two girls who took refuge in the Belgian embassy in Iran last year will be allowed to return to Belgium with their mother, an Iranian newspaper said on Monday.

Yasmine Pourhashemi, 15, and her six-year-old sister Sara were abducted by their father during a holiday in Greece and taken to Tehran. In December they eluded him and took refuge at the Belgian embassy.

"The mother was allowed to return the girls to Belgium after Iran's foreign ministry mediated in the custody case," the Etemad newspaper said.

Neither Iranian nor Belgium officials were immediately available for comment.

Last year Belgium issued an international arrest warrant on kidnapping charges for the father, Shahab Salami, who took the girls without their Belgian resident mother Zarah's permission.

The Iranian judge in charge of the case said last year that the mother had to pursue the case through the Iranian law, which gives the father custody of girls aged seven and over.

The mother travelled to Iran to resolve the case at the risk of facing a possible travel ban by her husband, the paper said. Under Iranian law, women need their husband's permission to leave the country.

Based on the agreement in Tehran, the father would have free and easy access to the girls in Belgium, the paper said.

Both parents and children have dual Belgian and Iranian citizenship. But the parents' divorce and the mother's custody rights granted by a Belgian court are not recognised in Iran. Nor does Iran recognise dual nationality.

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel travelled to Iran in March to help resolve the case.

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